48 
PEER GYNT. 
By Mr. H. L. JOSE LAND, M A. 
March 26th, 1907. 
A most interesting literary evening was spent by the 
members, when Mr. H. L. Joscland, M.A., read a paper on 
“ Peer Gynt,” Ibsen’s remarkable work. The paper opened 
wtth a short biographical account of Henrik Ibsen, and after 
speaking of the great poet’s unsuccessful early dramatic venture, 
Mr. Joseland touched on the first of the two great dramatic 
poems written at Rome, namely, “ Brand,” and in a masterly 
manner spoke of Ibsen’s attack on the people of the Norwegian 
valley which is the scene of the book. “ The people,” said 
the speaker, “ he attacks in unmeasured terms. They are 
a little of everything — a little loyal, a little patriotic, quick 
in starting, but clever in then dawdling on their way, restless, 
but feeble in action, in earnest neither in good nor evil. They 
are made up of fragments which hamper and neutralise each 
other, so that they can never really live.” It was against 
this half-heartedness, and unwillingness to commit themselves, 
their anxiety to leave available a back door of retreat, that 
Ibsen directed the poems of Brand and Peer Gynt. In the 
former he described all that the Norwegian was not. What 
he was, was shown in the latter poem. 
One of the main articles in Ibsen’s creed was the right 
and duty of all men and women to preserve their own person- 
ality and work out their own destiny. Every human being 
came into the world for some purpose. He had an individual- 
ity of his own, which it was his business to retain and develop. 
The half-heartedness and the spirit of compromise of Ibsen’s 
fellow countrymen was fatal to real life. A man could 
generally find out what he was meant for, if he would face 
the problems of life, and not try to go around them. If he 
thought of nothing but his own ease and comfort, of how he 
might travel through life with the minimum of annoyance .worry 
or work to himself, and without troubling himself about the 
welfare or happiness of others, he would fail. And it was 
the tragedy of this failure that was the subject of Peer Gynt. 
